Quincy previously hosted one of the highest concentrations of Flock Safety cameras in Massachusetts. Those cameras have since been powered down while officials decide what comes next. On Monday night, the City Council passed a resolution that would set guardrails for any future camera technology and require council approval before it is implemented. Councilors are drafting a second resolution urging state lawmakers to adopt statewide rules for the technology.

Mayor Thomas Koch said on a podcast that the city is looking at a different vendor following the concerns raised about Flock.

"We can go to a different system and it'll all be internal, that nobody will have access to the data except the Quincy police when they're investigating something," Koch said. "So I think that solved the problem, at least from my perspective."

The proposed pivot has not quieted opponents.

"This is a technology that is fundamentally incompatible with democracy," Quincy resident Tyler Anderson said outside City Hall on Monday night. "We cannot afford to keep it around."

Supporters argue that license plate readers are already woven into daily life and give police a fast investigative tool. Quincy Police Chief Mark Kennedy said the cameras can help investigators develop leads in minutes rather than days.

"I've seen first-hand what it can do to give our investigators clues in a matter of minutes instead of days," Kennedy said.

Kennedy also disputed claims circulating about the system's capabilities.

"They don't have their facts right. I've heard some wild tales of what they think this technology does, that it's tracking people — it's not. That it has facial recognition — it does not," he said. "If they were true, I would be against it."

The local debate is unfolding against a policy vacuum. Neither state nor federal officials have established comprehensive rules governing automatic license plate readers, leaving municipalities such as Quincy to write their own.

The stakes extend beyond Quincy. New Bedford fired two police officers in October over misuse of Flock cameras, and a New Bedford officer was accused earlier of using the system to track her ex. Those episodes have prompted departments across Massachusetts to reconsider their arrangements with the vendor.

The council's resolution does not authorize any new cameras. It sets a procedural barrier: no future system without council sign-off. Whether that satisfies residents who want the technology gone entirely — or the chief who wants investigators equipped — remains unresolved.